Monday, December 15, 2014

One reason why America is going to hell in a bucket is that the political establishment is jam-packed with Ivy League snobs who look down on ordinary citizens. The two centers of power in the USA, Wall Street and Washington D.C. are filled with graduates of elitist asshole factories like Harvard, Princeton and Yale who revel in their superiority. Big egos with pedigrees always know better than the unwashed rabble and never refrain from shouting it from the mountaintops and even worse – implementing policy. Such people are responsible for the squandering of America’s credibility, a loss of morality, endless bankrupting wars, a financial system that is a total scam and unable to function without government support and the creeping fascist state.

Not all Ivy League products are able to make it to the big time and they walk among us. They have no less sense of entitlement and over-inflated sense of self-importance though and some may be a bit bitter that they didn’t make the cut to enter the halls of power. An example of such jackassery has been getting attention lately in the case of Ben Edelman who is an associate professor at Harvard Business School. Mr. Edelman – who can’t be lacking in dough – went completely batshit after realizing that he had been overcharged a measly four dollars by a local Chinese eatery.

Last week, Edelman ordered what he thought was $53.35 worth of Chinese food from Sichuan Garden’s Brookline Village location.

Edelman soon came to the horrifying realization that he had been overcharged. By a total of $4.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a Harvard Business School professor thinks a family-run Chinese restaurant screwed him out of $4, you’re about to find out.

(Hint: It involves invocation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Statute and multiple threats of legal action.)

The story shows a series of emails between Edelman and the proprietor Ran Duan who was featured in stories in Boston Magazine and GQ and seems to be a great example of an immigrant who did it the right way. It seems that the egomaniac Edelman bit off more than he could chew as the story went viral, appearing on such varied websites as CNN, Fox News, CNBC, The Guardian, The Washington Times, Gawker, Infowars, Raw Story and dozens of others. It seems like there is actually one thing that does unite Americans these days and it is a loathing of elitists getting over on the besieged working folks.

After having seen the matter referred to the court of public opinion, where he has not fared particularly well, Edelman now says he’s sorry for the hubbub.

In an apology posted Wednesday afternoon on his Web site, Edelman wrote: “Having reflected on my interaction with Ran, including what I said and how I said it, it’s clear that I was very much out of line. I aspire to act with great respect and humility in dealing with others, no matter what the situation. Clearly I failed to do so. I am sorry, and I intend to do better in the future.”

Edelman, who is an attorney in addition to a professor, said that he’s reached out to Duan and plans to personally apologize to him.

Score one for small business owners as well as against those once referred to by Spiro Agnew as an "effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals". The trouble may not be over for Edelman though, a new story at Boston.com, "There’s More: Edelman Did This Before, And Worse" shows that the man may have quite a history of such harassing behavior.

By the way, it is no coincidence that the biggest asshole in America is a Harvard Law School product.

Google+ Badge

Proudly American

Freedom Is Slavery

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed here are just that - opinions and they are solely mine. I am not a professional journalist and much of the language and references in the posts on this blog are meant to be deliberately inflammatory and provocative. Those who are mocked and subjected to ridicule are public figures who choose to play the game and therefore are fair targets for such mockery.

FAIR USE STATEMENT

This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. we believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.